By RFIPosted on 15-11-2019Modified on 15-11-2019 at 23:02

For the 39th week in a row, this Friday was a day of mobilization in Algeria. Less than a month before the presidential election, and two days before the start of the electoral campaign, the Algerians have still manifested by the thousands. They demanded a change of the system at the head of the state and opposed the holding of the ballot in the current conditions.

The rain did not discourage them. Thousands of people again took to the streets Friday, in the capital as in Oran and Constantine, the other two main cities of Algeria, for this 39th week of mobilization. Markets have also mobilized heavily in several other localities, according to online news sites and social networks.

It remains less than a month before the presidential election of December 12, and just two days before the official opening of the election campaign. Five candidates, including two former prime ministers, are in the running : all are rejected en bloc by the protesters. In the procession this Friday, we heard slogans: a " Release! "Addressed to Ahmed Gaid Salah, the strongman of the country since the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and more widely to the system in place, or" The elections will not take place! "

In the capital, protesters unfurled a banner with photos of detainees linked to the Hirak. At least 140, according to the National Committee for the Release of Prisoners, have been arrested in a wave of repression of protests began soon after the cancellation, for want of candidates, of a first presidential election on 4 July. This week, 28 of them were found guilty of " undermining the integrity of the national territory " and sentenced to six months in prison . Five others were acquitted. All had been arrested in possession of the Amazigh flag.

On the social networks circulate images of slogans against the vote, written on electoral panels, and calls to disturb the movements of the candidates for the beginning of the official campaign this Sunday.

►Also read: Algeria: HRW denounces "widespread repression" of the protest

    On the same subject

    In Algeria, the adoption of the hydrocarbons law crystallises tensions

    In Focus: A disputed and contestable verdict in Algeria

    In Algeria, a petition to support the journalists of the national radio

    Presidential elections in Algeria: the Constitutional Council validates the five candidatures

    Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed in Algeria for more cooperation

    comments